Racism in European Soccer

Current problem/issue
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, but it is particularly popular in Europe. All the best teams in the world are located in Europe, and the world’s richest soccer club, Manchester United, is valued to $1.2 billion. With all this money involved in the game, you would think that unsporting incidents like racism would result in declining sponsorships. So you think the clubs would have to do something about it, but they don’t. How can racism be tolerated in European soccer? [Forbes.com]

Pre history

When soccer started to grow in popularity during the 1850’s, it was mainly among the working class. They saw soccer as a way to keep their young kids out of trouble by providing them with a sport that would help them to learn about teamwork, and hard work. Through the years, soccer was established as a working class sport. During the mid 1800’s, there were very few people living in Europe with racial diversity. Asia, Africa and Caribbean immigration began in the 1950’s, which was a hundred years after soccer started to grow in popularity. As a result, white working class males saw soccer as a segregated sport, and believed soccer should be reserved only for them. A good example of racism was during the 1950’s when the White Defence League sold their newspaper Black and White at soccer stadiums in London. When the first black players started to join the game in the 1960’s, they were met with a lot of skepticism. The crowd they were playing for was the descendants of the crowd that first started to go to soccer games a hundred year earlier, and held the same political view points and prejudices as their ancestors. Today, the majority of the fans attending the games at the stadium remain white. In a survey during the 1993-1994 season in the English Premier League, only 1% of the fans described themselves as none-white. However 25% of the players that played in the English Premier League, which is by many considered to be the best league in world, are black. [Social issues research center], [Collins]
Forms of racism

Racist insults from the crowd were directed at black players. The crowd would make monkey noises and throw bananas down to the field. Racism in soccer remained a significance problem during the late 1980’s. In addition to racial prejudice, religious prejudice was also demonstrated toward Jewish and Muslim players. Ronnie Rosenthal a Jewish player in the Italian club Udinese did not play a single match for the club due to pressure from a neo-fascist circle around the club. [Social issues research center]

Soccer clubs fans are also experiencing racist abuse. AFC Ajax is a club from the Dutch capitol of Amsterdam. When the club was founded in 1900 it was founded in a Jewish neighborhood. After WWII, most of the Jews that lived in Amsterdam had been murdered by the Nazis, but the Ajax fans continued using Jewish symbols to express their support for the club. Many Ajax fans calls themselves “joden” which means Jude in Dutch. This has caused opponents supports to use bizarre ways to show their antipathy against Ajax. One slogan the opponent fans use is “Hamas, Hamas, Jews into the gas”. Another thing that is done by opponent fans is to make hissing sound that are suppose to imitate the flow of gas heard in the deadly gas chambers. [ReligionNewsBlog], [USHMM]

Soccer fans have also used current events to express their hate. After the Deptford fire in London in 1981 where 13 black partygoers died, the fans of Millwall, a London club that is known for its extreme fans, sang at the stadium “We all agree, niggers burn better than petrol”. [Social issues research center]

Racism in European soccer today

Up to the late 1980’s, racism was considered to be a huge problem in all of Europe. Today the problem is more located in the southern and eastern parts of Europe. In countries like Italy and Spain there has been a growth in racist incidents. Other countries like England, France and Germany, racism has declined. In Eastern Europe, racism is a developing problem as more black players immigrated to the east in the mid 1990’s following the fall of the Soviet Union.  
Racial incidences attracted more attention Spain and Italy. The leagues in both countries are considered to be among the best in the world. In both countries the gap between soccer and politics is not big. Many fans have political beliefs that are far to the right making it difficult for them to accept black players and they often react by throwing bananas and making monkey sounds. [Deutsche Welle], [Fraser], [Nash]  

Examples of racism in modern time

One of the most serious incidents that has happened in modern time was when Spain played England in Madrid in November 2004. England which in much greater scale is a multiethnic country started with two players that were colored. Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips which both are young up-and-coming soccer players, abused by the Spanish crowd throughout the whole game. Each time one of them got the ball the crowd started to make monkey sounds. The insults were so strong that the British Prime Minister at that time, Tony Blair got involved too. The president of the international soccer organization, FIFA, Sepp Blatter made the following statement following the game: "There is no room whatsoever for racism or discrimination in our sport. On the contrary,soccer is a tool for building bridges and nurturing tolerance,”. Racial episodes continue. [BBC Sport 2]
During a game between Inter Milan and Messina in the Italian premier division, Messina defender Marc Zoro a native from the Ivory Coast, threaten to leave the field if the Inter Milan fans did not stop the abuse. Zoro was transformed to teams after retrieving a ball near the visiting Inter Milan supports where they started to make monkey sounds and scream racial slogans. Zoro proceeded to pick the ball up, and began to leave the field until black Inter Milan striker Adriano persuaded him to keep playing. After the game, Zoro said that this was not the first time that he had been abused. "I have been playing in Italy for three years and I see this happening almost daily," was his answer he gave when a reporter asked him if this had happened before. [Deutsche Welle], [BBC Sport 3]

What are being done to stop racism?

It was first in the beginning in the 90’s that soccer officials started to seriously take care of the problem. Especially in England where the Football (Offences) Act 1991 made racist abuse at game unlawful. So far England is the only country where racist abuse at soccer games is illegal. So to handle the problem several campaigns have been launched. The two most famous campaigns are the “Kick It out”, and “Stand Up, Speak Up”. [Social issues research center]
Kick It Out: The kick it out campaign was launched in 1993 and the brand name is “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football (soccer)”. One of the first things the campaign did was in the 1994/95 season, they made a fanzine called “United Colours of Football”. The magazine was printed in 110,000 copies and given out free at soccer grounds all across England. Although most people thought the campaign was a good idea, some people did not. Some critics said that racism is not a problem, and by having a campaign that focuses on it the problem would just be highlighted. [Kick it out], [Social issues research center]
Stand Up, Speak Up: In January 2005 French striker Thierry Henry launched with help from his sponsor Nike, the Stand Up, Speak Up campaign. Henry got the idea to have a campaign after he had been called “a black peace of shit” by Spanish national team coach Luis Aragonés. The symbol of the campaign is two wristbands interlocked together, one black and one white. Five million wristbands were produced, and then sold on the European market. The wristbands became extremely popular after Henry and several other soccer stars started to wear them. However Nike was criticized for using a serious matter as racism to get publicity. [Stand Up, Speak Up], [BBC Sport]
There are also several smaller campaigns. One of the most extreme actions that have been done is by the English soccer club Derby County. The club went so far to dedicate a match in the 1994 season to the fight against racism. Several hundred tickets were also given out free to children in hope of encourage the people in the local Asian community to come and attend the matches. [Social issues research center]
There have also been several other forms of markings to show that racism is not tolerated. In The Netherland the players went out on a strike due to racism. The Norwegian club Vålerenga, which is located in an area with many immigrants decided to play some of their games in the 2006 in a black and white jersey with the slogan “Vålerenga against racism” on the jersey. Other than showing the support against racism, the international soccer organization (FIFA) is raising the fines for clubs and nations that let their fans express themselves in a way that may be understood as racism. [Strand], [Moore]

What I think should be done/Conclusion

I am a soccer player, and in Norway I live in a multiethnic community. Many of my friends have experienced what it means to be abused just because of the color of their skin or religion. I think the most important thing that has to be done to get rid of racism in soccer, is to enforce stronger financial penalties. Today the clubs don’t even notice the fines. If FIFA had expelled clubs that repeatedly are having problems with racism, other clubs would have reacted by doing something about it. The various campaigns that have been launched are helping too, but in the end financial penalty remains the most impactful motivator.
Kjølv Fossum.

Sources cited
• Kick it out: www.kickitout.org
• Stand Up, Speak Up: http://www.furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=275
• Social issues research center: http://www.sirc.org/publik/fvracism.html
• Forbes.com:http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/34/2005/LIR.jhtml?passListId=34&passYear=2005&passListType=Misc&uniqueId=340001&datatype=Misc
• Collins, Robert: http://www.popmatters.com/sports/features/050119-europeanfootball.shtml 
• BBC Sport: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/football/internationals/4252871.stm
• Strand, Sigbjørn: http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2007/08/25/509998.html 
• Moore, Glenn: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060317/ai_n16228778
• BBC Sport 2: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/4018421.stm 
• BBC Sport 3: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/4333936.stm 
• Deutsche Welle: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1798795,00.html
• ReligionNewsBlog: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/9885/ajax-seek-image-change-to-stop-anti-semitic-chants
• USHMM: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143 
• Marcus, Jefferey: http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/q-a-fighting-racism-in-european-soccer/
• Fraser, Christian: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6339775.stm
• Nash, Elizabeth: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980913/ai_n14170578